Strategic Warrior

We need to be prepared to go anywhere at any time. That's why we need to be a very agile force and we need to be a thinking force.

In one hand we are that fierce fighter, but on the other hand we also do these things that are not typically associated with combat operations—building schools, proofing the water supply. We have to be that two-fisted fighter.

You have to know the people that you are trying to help. You have to know their culture.

Each person in the Marine Corps has to understand that their role is vital to the fight.

In a matter of moments the situation could change drastically, and through our training and past experiences we have to know how to react without hesitation.

The Marines to your left and right, they count on you. Nobody operates alone.

The Marine Corps instilled in me a warrior spirit to complete the mission and to carry out the Commander's intent. To know what's right and what's wrong, how to recognize situations.

Marines need to be able to assess a situation quickly and make a decision based upon the facts that they have at hand. Some of those decisions need to be split second, such as in combat.

Marines have always been called to be ready and told, hey, gear up, you're going, march to the sound of the guns.

The 125 degree heat, the sand, the wind, the rocks. No matter how nasty or how bad things are, you have everything under control.

There's no room for error.

I'm ready to get up and go on a moment's notice whether that's on a Marine expeditionary unit or to a land-based deployment. You bring everything to bear on the enemy, and he's got nowhere to go.

They need young men and women who can think, act and move with sense of purpose in order to get a mission done.